The average student should budget $1250 a year for books and supplies. 

- College Board

66% of students have chosen not to purchase a textbook because it was too expensive.

- Chronicle of Higher Education

Over the past decade, textbook prices have risen at over three times the rate of inflation.

- Student PIRGs 

Just 5 textbook publishers control more than 80% of the 8.8 billion dollar market. 

- Student PIRGs

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 

Open Educational Resources are educational materials offered freely and openly for anyone to use. They are usually licensed to allow sharing, remixing, or customization. The resources can include textbooks, full courses, course materials, modules, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other resources used to support access to knowledge.

The use of Open Educational Resources (OER) can benefit students and instructors. Research has shown that:

• The use of OER can save students money without negatively impacting learning outcomes.

• OER adoption improves end-of-course grades and decreases course withdrawals and the grades of D and F (DFW grades). 

At the University of South Carolina, the use of OER and other freely-available materials has saved students over $430,000 since 2015.